Our expert was Christopher Jeffer. A musician, producer, and sound engineer at the Masquerade Atlanta.
Chris’s initial feedback on the app design was extremely positive. He showed interest at the idea for a central hub to be created for people trying to network with one another in the industry.
Is this problem worth solving?
Chris agreed that the problem of networking between artists, producers, and listeners is rampant in Atlanta. There is a lot of clique-ness to the industry as it stands and he saw a platform that seeks to unify as a good thing.
What are the biggest obstacles?
Chris explained that many of the atlanta artists fear that they will not be linking up with people worth their while (cliquey people bent on staying within a certain group) and suggested that we include a feature that showed mutuals, aka, who the person who are connecting with is also connected to, as a way for artists to vet who they wanted to get into contact with.
What pitfalls should we avoid?
Chris explained that it was really important for our app as a company to overemphasize the idea that we were not a cooperation. A lot of the Atlanta music scene prides itself on being underground and not involved with large companies.
Who else should I be talking to?
Chris answered this with the idea that the app should be brought from the bottom up by feet on the ground. Meaning he thought we should be attending shows, communicating with the groups that frequent them and the artists and showing them the app first hand. This would avoid the corporatized aspect that our app threatens to bring to the community, and also would allow us that interpersonal communication with actual artists, producers and listeners.
What am I not asking that Im not aware of?
Chris described the issue of breaking into the music community of Atlanta if you are not already a part of it. He made the comment that many artists already are interconnected with one another and that a very beneficial component of this app could be to get into contact with venues that have possible stage time for up and coming artists. He said this could be a major drawing point of the app that we may have not thought of when creating it.